Shinya Aoki to face Satoru Kitaoka at DREAM’s new year show

After defending the DREAM lightweight title in a submission win over Tatsuya Kawajiri in July of last year, grappling wizard Shinya Aoki will finally defend his title once again when he squares off against former Sengoku lightweight champion Satoru Kitaoka.

The bout is scheduled to take place at DREAM’s New Year’s Eve show dubbed Fight for Japan: How are you! New Year! 2011, an event taking place on December 31 at the legendary Saitama Super Arena.

Since his win over Kawajiri, Aoki went on to record five consecutive victories, including multiple non-title affairs in Japan and a submission win over Lyle Beerbohm at Strikeforce: Diaz vs Daley in April. The “Submission Magician” has dropped just one of his last ten fights — a decision loss to Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez.

Kitaoka is most famous for submitting Takanori Gomi to win the Sengoku lightweight title. He is currently riding a four-fight winning streak and has last competed against Willamy Freire in a bout that ended with a tight split decision win for the Japanese fighter.

Also rumored for the card is a fight between Fedor Emelianenko and 2008 Olympic Judo gold medalist Satoshi Ishii.